Study Tips // How To study The ‘It’s Lu Again’ way + Motivation & Advice From Other Bloggers Too!

This posts was meant to be up yesterday. . . sorryyyyyy. BUT IM HERE NOW to share my words of wisdommmmm. I mean, I’m no expert*, but someone asked for this post and I thought that it would be useful as lots of us will be revising soon and sooooo here you areeee, and yes this is longish.

I mean, most people my age have exams too so this might be usefullll?????? I mean I’m going to attempt and give some advice on 1) how to become motivated and 2) some tips on studying once you’re motivated / some of my note taking stuff.

To study….hm, to be honest, I did little flashcards everytime I studied to help me learn things better, also.. REWARD yourself. Study for an hour and then tell yourself you can read, blog, watch a tv show or something. This also works well aha 🙂

My notes I generally spend agesss making them look super pretty and then that ends up making me feel super motivated to make even more notes. Plus getting new stationary and supplies always helps 😉 xx

^^^^ literally YES.

bookwormjulia(I couldn’t find a link????. . . sorryyyyyyyyy)

You won’t like what I do for exams. 😆 I review/skim the subjects that I’m good at (the only one is LA though, cause I’m a writer) and then study harder for the stuff I’m not so great at… but those have never really existed. So that leaves the ones where I freak out and go on a study rampage. Last year I reread the entire science textbook. (I’M REALLY BAD AT SCIENCE OKAY THE EXAMS TERRIFY ME) But maybe try studying in like sprints or something. Study for 10 minutes, take a break for 5. Or maybe study for 15 or 20 minutes. Whatever helps you. 😃 (It really helps, cause then when you want to get distracted, you’re like ‘oh come on, 10 minutes of studying is nothing’) Listening to music is also great! I like listening to wordless music that isn’t boring.

revision wise I’ve just been trying to do as much as I can whenever I can, I’ve actually done a post on how I revise which you might find useful but then again I don’t revise much at all so it could just be a phantom post of me trying t to motivate myself! If you make your notes all colourful and prettier it helps with the motivation, believe me; I’ve almost finished the notes on my Germany topic and while I know approximately none of the content I am motivated to keep going because I’ve got some rather pretty pastel coloured notes.

^^^ link to the post Soph refers to below!! THIS SAVED ME!!

watch study videos on youtube,

look at study-grams,

organise all your books / notes,

make lists!

Watch Study-tube // Study Videos On Youtube

I actually found this first method from Soph’s post, which you can find right here, where she lists loads of revision material things but the one that I found the most effective was watching other people study?? You literally just see the notepad and the person’s had and how they make nice notes and er-mer-gerd they are so motivating??

LIKE I’M COMPETITIVE so this works perfectly for me as I WANT TO MAKE NICER NOTES THAN THEM. And also, it motivated you to make your notes pretty and therefore you ENJOY studying more and it looks super nice so you’ll actually want to refer back to them later on! TRUST ME THIS WORKS FOR ME.

And they’re also just generally so AESTHETICALLY PLEASING so now I just look at them in awe and I FREAKING LOVE BEAUTIFUL NOTES.

Look At Study-grams // Photos Of Pretty Notes

THEY ARE HONESTLY SO AESTHETIC AND SO BEAUTIFUL AND I CANNOT EVEN THEY’RE JUST GORGEOUS.

I they’re so motivating because I love having nice notes and they want me to make nicer notes and then I just want it all to be nice and yeah!! notes!!

Like, they show you how to make effective notes that also look really nice and IDK about you, but when notes LOOK nice, I want to continue making notes??? Does that make sense??

Organise All Your Books / Study Topics.

I find that there’s something REALLY motivating about being organised?? Especially during studying. If everything is a huge mess then you’re never gonna wanna even look at it. Trust meeeeee, you’ll find that it resembles your life just a little too much and you’ll host scream:

abort!! abort!! abort!!

. . . and you’ll swim away like a flailing fish.

. . . yep I’M TALKING FROM EXPERIENCE.

For example, separating topic lists for subject with bulldog clips to make getting everything a lot easier!

So, do yourself the biggest favour you can and get organised!!

(you can thank me later)

If you get organised NOW it makes planning out your revision so much EASIER since you know where everyyyything is and you can quickly grab it and study for a bit, rather than sorting through a heap of books and then giving up when you can’t find it.

Make Lists!

If you’ve read like one post from me you can see ALL THE GLORIOUS LISTS featured here. Watch out because you’re probably going to get literally bombarded with lists*

A list, on why lists are so motivating:

You can plan out your revision plan of attack.

It saves so much time.

You have a clear structure to keep to (but stay flexible!)

TICKING THINGS OFF IS SO SATISFYING.

you don’t forget what to revise!!

Did I mention TICKING THINGS OFF??

*”stop with all the lists!!!” They screamed. me: no.

The main things that I do to revise are:

condensing notes that I already have, making them look super pretty and just like freaking out over different pens.

Using flashcards to further condense and also using them for key word tests / quotes!!

Mind maps. I’m not too keen on these to be honest?? and I haven’t really used them yet. But I think that once I’ve got condensed notes for a topic I will put them into a mind map at some point since I like to condense notes, and then condense them some more.

I also make loads of notes on my computer!! I literally copy notes out to make revision sheets that I can they take with me wherever instead of having to lug 4376257 books around with me all the time.

<— This is an example, and as you can see this is extremely off-putting and demotivating.

This is basically a huge lists of all the key topics, words and concepts that I needed for an exam and were the absolute BASICS.

I did this to condense it all and then to smush it all on to revision cards and notes that were more lengthy didn’t go on here, but they went onto separate sheets that I can then put with this sheet once I print it out! <– obviously, this wont be good for everyone, but I just enjoy to mix it up!

My revision notes tips:

as you can see, the page on the right was my original notes, and then I changed them into the notes on the lest, which I find much more readable and something that im more likely to go back to!

there’s nothing wrong with colour, but don’t use about 358623 colours on one page as it will literally look like a rainbow vomited on there and wont be so inviting to look at.

make it look pretty with titles and cursive fonts as well as ball capitals. It makes things stand out from the page and separate up the test to make it look easier to read.

Flashcards:

Make sure to group these together so they’re easy to refer to! This can be rubber bands, or bulldog clips, but I prefer the latter since they’re more reliable and they look cuter ❤

Study Times:

Do not revise for 4 hours straight. I’ve tried this, I’m pretty sure that we’ve all tried this. IT DOES NOT WORK. LIKE NO.

What I like to do (now that I’ve learnt what a “break” is) is revise for about an hour then take a 20 minute break. Sometimes less, sometimes more. It depends. I feel that revising for 20ish minutes then having a break for 5 or 10 minutes is too blocky and I don’t really get much done???

But then an hour gives me time to focus on one topic, make what I need, then I can take a break, then go back to the resources that I just made, test myself and reread notes, and then move on to the next topic.

Time Yourself!! Make sure that you do no over study!! set a timer for the appropriate length based on what you’re studying. For example: quotes/key words, (making flashcards and learning) = 30ish minutes. But recounting how hitler became chancellor (making notes, mind maps, timelines) = 1 hour/10-min-break/30-min-recap.

However, every person is different and you may find that working in short bursts is best for you, or not! But just remember to take breaks and not work or 5 hours straight because then your eyes go bloodshot and puffy and sfjgnkjgn you shut down (not. . . speaking. . . from. . . experience. . .here. . . )

I hope that this was useful! Was it? Do you have exams soon? How do you study?? What do you do to keep organised? How long do you study for before taking a break? Chat with me in the comments!!

20 thoughts on “Study Tips // How To study The ‘It’s Lu Again’ way + Motivation & Advice From Other Bloggers Too!”

Oh, I love this post!! To be completely honest, I don’t study hardcore for exams??? (Yet.) I got to an IB school so some of our exams are projects (which is both good and bad). I definitely study for science and history tho!! And this year I’ll have to study for LA and uhgughguhg. In science we’re allowed to have a notecard of notes while we take the exam so I am DEFINITELY using that!!

Omg your handwriting & notes look so pretty??? I literally do not care about how my notes look like (esp when the teachers use handouts). I think it’s a great idea to study for an hour and then take a break but I really just… study. I DON’T KNOW WHAT I DO, OKAY. 😭😂

I love this, this has a lot of very useful information!! I love mind maps, they don’t really help me study personally but I’m IN LOVE with how they look, seriously 😀 ❤
I also watch a lot of study youtube videos, specially when I have science exams, they're so cool and it makes you feel really interested in it!! 😀
Great post!!!! 😀 ❤
P.S. Your lettering is really good!!!! 😛

Thank you! I don’t find them that useful either??? I think that they’re only good for making notes look pretty ahah.

OMG yesssss revision videosss! I really need to get into these but the only ones that I know of are for different exam boards, so not the content that I need *sobs*
AWWW thank youuuu you’re so sweet!!!<3 I’m trying to improve it over time, but it takes agesss to learnnnnn *sobs some more*

I got good grades but am not sure I was actually the most effective person at studying while actually in school. Now that I have some teaching experience, I have a bit of a different perspective on it.

I do like a lot of the advice in this post, such as studying in blocks and taking breaks. I’ve said this before (maybe on other blogs and not yours?), bu, living and working in a university town, t I see SO MANY PEOPLE who THINK they are studying but are actually looking at their phone or surfing the web. Literally, I been in a room with college students for 4-6 hours and seen people who had a textbook in front of them or a PDF pulled up on their laptop and did not look at it ONCE during those 4-6 hours because they were actually texting their friends or watching cat videos or something. This might be the extreme end of distraction, but I’ve (anecdotally) seen it a lot. I think breaks are really good if you feel you must reply to texts or whatever. Study for 30 min and then reply to texts for 10, or whatever schedule works for you. I think breaking things up can seem way more manageable than going into a study session thinking, “Ok, I am going to cram for five hours!”

I also like the advice above about spending less time reviewing stuff you know and more time reviewing stuff you don’t know (which I think I was sort of bad at while I was a student. I just reviewed EVERYTHING.) I would also emphasize that, if there’s a study guide given for a class, STUDY THAT. It seems like obvious advice but a lot of people do not do this. There’s one professor I’ve worked with who, every time a student comes to her office hours asking how they can do better on the quizzes, starts with “Did you study the material on the study guide?” Frequently they say no; they’re trying to study all the material from the class, including stuff the professor explicitly stated would not be on the quiz. Once they study the study guide and focus on what they actually need to review, they do much better. (Worth noting here that this professor actually follows her own study guide and does not ask trick questions or questions about topics that are not on the guide; I can’t say every instructor I’ve encountered is good at that, but take the time to judge whether the instructor is actually asking something that’s not on the guide or not.)

I’m so glad that you liked my advice!! Hahah it’s so ridiculous when people just text with an open book in front of them, thinking that they’re gonna be able to revise properly like that aha! I only really take breaks when I need them?? So maybe I’ll be finishing a topic in science and I see that I have a few messages, I’ll reply to those for idk, three minutes (??) and then I’ll go back to studying? Or maybe I’ll just get up to get some water. Sometimes I don’t really feel like I need a break, it all really depends on the person

How to study?? Mate you mean to tell me that my method of “cram 4 weeks worth of lessons in 3 hours and then PANIC” isn’t the way to go?? Whaaaa that’s news to me I’ve been doing it wrong all my smol life!!
I am a very VERY “re-write everything” type of person it helps A LOT if your attention is very bad (it me) and you tend to take really long pauses.
Good luck if you have any exams coming up!! I’ll be sure to use some of these tips as well and maybe try to avoid the “and then PANIC” part of it all.